Bono quits as CEO of USA Gymnastics
Former congresswoman Mary Bono resigned Tuesday after less than a week as interim CEO of USA Gymnastics in the wake of critical comments by 2016 gold medalists Simone Biles and Aly Raisman about social media posts and her past association with a law firm that advised USA Gymnastics during the Larry Nassar sexual abuse crisis.
Bono, 56, was appointed last week to head the federation, which has been struggling financially and in the public eye in the wake of the Nassar case, and immediately came under fire because of a social media post that criticized Nike’s association with activist and former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick.
Biles, 21, of Spring was critical of the Nike tweet, and Raisman, who has been one of the most outspoken critics of USA Gymnastics in the wake of the Nassar case, noted Bono once worked for Faegre Baker Daniels, a law firm that worked with USA Gymnastics and its former president, Steve Penny, to keep the Nassar allegations out of the public eye in 2015.
In a statement announcing her resignation, Bono cited “personal attacks that, left undefended, would have made my leading USAG a liability for the organization.”
As a former gymnast who said she had witnessed abusive behavior by a coach, she said she would have brought a “fire in the belly to ensure that no one taken with gymnastics as I was at that age should have to choose between abuse and ambition.”
She also defended her decision to criticize Kaepernick’s decision to kneel during performances of the national anthem before NFL games, writing, “He nationally exercised his First Amendment right to kneel. I exercised mine: to mark over on my own golf shoes (the Nike logo).”
USA Gymnastics’ board of directors, which expressed disappointment Monday regarding Bono’s Nike tweet, said in a statement that Bono’s resignation “is in the best interest of the organization.”
Biles, who has a Nike endorsement contract, said during a conference call regarding her tweet critical of Bono, “Being a Nike athlete, you have to stand up for your brand. You kind of have to stand up for what you believe in. Gymnastics is already political enough, so I don’t want to bring American politics into it, which is hard enough, especially (with) trying to find a new (USA Gymnastics) president and all that.”